Suggestibility of children's memory

Question 1

How are children interviewed? (6)

Answer 1

Many times by different people
Research tries to replicate reality by:
- being based on staged life-like events
- treating children as eye witnesses
- changing stress levels and secrecy requirements
- asking children to recall information after some specific interval
- introducing misinformation and suggestibility

Question 2

What is the problem with research trying to replicate reality? (1)

Answer 2

Concerns about ecological validity

Question 3

What is free recall? (1)

Answer 3

Involves asking the child to tell you everything that they can remember about what happened

Question 4

What is the limitation of free recall? (2)

Answer 4

Children give accurate, but often limited information in free recall, this could be due to motivation or vocabulary

Question 5

What did the Goodman et al, 1990 study investigate and what did they find? (5)

Answer 5

3-5 year olds underwent routine medical procedure

Gave no false information in free recall
Most distressed children gave the most accurate reports
41% made false ID of the nurse
3, 5 and 7 years old showed little intrusion of inaccurate information when asked to free recall about medical examination (Gordon and Follmer, 1994)

Question 6

Which type of question are asked at an interview with children and give examples (2)

Answer 6

Open-ended
How are you feeling?
What happened next?
Closed
Do you feel scared?
Did they come in?

Question 7

What did the Peterson et al, 1996 study show about the type of questions asked at an interview with children? (4)

Answer 7

With open questions:
- children shows 91% accuracy about their trip to A&E
- dropped to 45% accuracy with closed questions

Question 8

What have studies shown about bias to closed questions in interviews with children? (3)

Answer 8

Fritzley and Lee, 2003:
- 2 yrs biased to ‘yes’
- 4/5 yrs biased to ‘no’
- 3 yrs show developmental transition

Question 9

Who conducted studies on nonsensical questions? (3)

Answer 9

Hughes and Grieve (1980)
Waterman et al (2000, 2001)

Question 10

What did Hughes and Grieve find? (3)

Answer 10

Almost all 5 and 7 year olds answered nonsensical questions
25% initially said ‘don’t know’, when asked again almost all offered an answer
Child answering does not imply understanding

Question 11

What did Waterman et al find? (3)

Answer 11

When asked a closed, nonsensical question every child offered an answer
When asked an open, nonsensical question, 95% said ‘don’t know’

Question 12

Who conducted study on repeated questioning and what did they do (4)

Answer 12

Poole and White, 1991
4, 6 and 8 yr olds witnessed ambiguous events
Half were interviews immediately and 1 week later
And half were only interviewed 1 week later
Each time all question types asked 3 times

Question 13

What did Poole and White, 1991 find about repeated questioning? (3)

Answer 13

Open questions, even when repeated, yield good accuracy
Closed questions, when repeated, younger children likely to change their response both within and across interviews
Increasingly confident about answers

Question 14

What is suggestibility? (2)

Answer 14

Extent to which individuals (either consciously or unconsciously) come to accept and subsequently incorporate post-event information into their memory recollections

Question 15

What are the three types of suggestibility? (3)

Answer 15

Interrogative suggestibility
Misinformation effects
Autosuggestion (reading)

Question 16

Who conducted study on interview bias in suggestibility and what did they do? (2)

Answer 16

Thompson et al
Staged ambiguous event to 5 and 6 year olds

Question 17

What did Thompson et al find about interview bias in suggestibility? (3)

Answer 17

Neutral interview - reports were accurate
Biased interviewer - more errors of commission
When questioned by parents 2 weeks later - children continued to assent to false events suggested by the interviewer

Question 18

Who conducted study on the effect of misinformation in suggestibility and what did they do? (4)

Answer 18

Buck et al
5 year old inoculated by paediatrician
One year later they were all interviewed 4 times
Some interviewers suggested false information in questioning

Question 19

What did Buck et al find about effect of misinformation in suggestibility (2)

Answer 19

Misleading suggestions often incorporated into children’s reports
Also reported non-suggested, inaccurate details

Question 20

What is the implication of misinformation in suggestibility? (4)

Answer 20

Children assent to false information when suggested by the questioning of the interviewer
Rates of assenting to false information rise with each repeated, suggestive interview about false events
Once children begin to assent to, or offer, false information in their accounts, they may continue to embellish their accounts further
New information provided by the child after an initial (free recall) interview is likely to be inaccurate (Salmonand Pipe, 2000